SPARC and cancer: To further investigate the role epigenetic changes play in determining NB phenotype, we analyzed the status of promoter methylation and the level of expression of seven genes with tumor suppressor function (THBS-1, HIC-1, HIN-1 TIG-1, CASP8, BLU, and SPARC), that are epigenetically silenced in subsets of adult cancers, in an N-type tumorigenic NB cell line (LA1-55n) and an S-type non-tumorigenic NB cell line (LA1-5s).